The Origin Of The Phrase Checkmate

In chess, when a player is in a position to capture the king on his/her next move without any parade possible from the opponent, he/she says ''checkmate' and wins the game. This expression comes from mid-14c old French ''eschec mat''. In modern French, '' Échec et mat'', is a deformation of the Arabic word ''al cheikh mat'', which means ''the king is dead''.